Tag Archives: science fiction short story

Having just returned from a month’s break I guess I should mention my new story “Ventiforms” in the current (January/ February 2019) issue of Asimov’s.

Following my award-winning* (yay) story from two years ago, “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles“, this is another story from my world of Shilinka Switalla. Ms. Switalla is an artist who creates artworks on a vast scale. In the case of “Ventiforms” transforming whole canyons into musical instruments.

My Worlds of Shilinka Switalla universe is growing slowly, with two other stories also available, “Cathedrals” and “Ten Gravity Tower“. I have fun with the concepts, and I’m glad that readers enjoy the stories too.

I probably wax on about my teenage dream of getting published inAsimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. This month marks the publication of my fifth story there, in the March-April 2018 issue. I’m humbled every time. That my little ol’ story gets such an honor.

Without giving too much away, “The Billows of Sarto” is set in an dormant volcanic crater, teeming with forest life and hotpools, on a far away planet (isn’t science fiction cool – I get such a fun playground). There’s an interview around somewhere with me (I’ll link to it once I find it!), but one of the questions was about my inspiration for the story.

Well, I do like volcanoes. Growing up in New Zealand, they’re all over. On a clear day, with a bit of elevation, you can see two from my hometown – Taranaki and Ruapehu.

I’ve also been lucky enough to visit volcanoes in other parts of the world too, from the volcanic plugs of the Glass House Mountains in Queensland Australia, to Rano Kau on Easter Island to Mt Fuji in Japan (well in the distance from a train).

One of my favourite places is Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. This is a genuine collapse caldera, where part of the mountain has dropped into the magma chamber (if I have those processes right). A smaller cone has even developed inside the caldera.

(photographs by Diana Monaghan – when I was there I was so in love with the place I forgot to take any. Excuse the bluriness – not Mum’s fault: mine. I photographed her photos with my phone. Sheesh).

It was fun to write the story, taking those places and reinventing them, with new ecologies and geothermal systems and, I hope, interesting characters.

Oh, it also turns out that my last story for Asimov’s, “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, is also a finalist in the Asimov’s Annual Readers’ Award Poll, short story category, which is quite an honor. Maurizio’s wonderful cover art is also a finalist in the art category. Feels like that’ll need a longer post soon.

I’ve had a story set in a novel universe come out before (“Scour” in New Myths, is set in the world of my Karnish River Navigations novels), but “If You’re Listening…” is the first to include characters from the actual novel.

Trapped aboard the Zadie Captain Arlon Stoddard and navigator Eva Strong must make instant decisions if they’re going to get to safety.

My winning story in the “Gernsback Amazing Stories” contest is now available to read for free at the Amazing Stories website. “Penny of Tharsis Montes” is nicely complemented by an illustration by Vicktor Antonov – sums up the core of the story nicely.

“A potentially deadly asteroid fall causes a Martian farmer to remember the days he spent on the red planet…and, perhaps, the days to come. A Gernsback Contest winning short story.”

My thanks to editors Steve Davidson and Ira Nayman for their faith in the story, and also their hard work getting the issue out.

Finally my subscriber’s copy arrived! That’s a smile on my face, I’m sure. Clearly too focused on working the new computer’s camera… but inside I’m smiling, and jumping up and down and turning cartwheels. Well, at my age, I can manage one cartwheel 🙂

As part of the Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, most of the finalists are available to read for free at their website. Click here for The Molenstraat Music Festival.

Lastly, the story was a finalist for New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards, losing to the extraordinary Octavia Cade. Nice to see Octavia has a story forthcoming in Asimov’s too. It was fun to hang out with other writers at Au Contraire and the awards ceremony a few weeks back.

I had a finalist in the short story category of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards too, “The Harsichord Elf” from A.C. Buchanan‘s Capricious online magazine. The talented Lee Murray‘s story “The Thief’s Tale” won the award.

I’m thrilled to be nominated, and honored and humbled to be among such remarkable company. All this feels like a kid’s dream really.

Well, this is the cover for the June issue, but I’ll post the August cover when that issue comes out… with my story “Wakers” inside.

Here’s the blurb from the Asimov’s website:

In Sean Monaghan’s tense August 2016 novelette, unforeseen dangers have disrupted an interstellar journey. Although the work of self-sacrificing astronauts has kept the spaceship running for hundreds of years, the voyage may soon be permanently altered by fresh “Wakers.”

I’m looking forward to it. Keep an eye out for the issue. It should be out in early July.